Choosing the best quality of tools for your video editing software can often make the difference between creating a product that is highly polished, or ending up with a video that looks unprofessional. With so many amateur film creators generating their own content today, finding the right video editing tools could help to make sure the time that you invest in your content sees the highest return on investment. 

With powerful video editors and efficiency tools, you can work at creating more successful videos. 

Here is an ultimate guide of the best tools for video editors this year:

For PC/MAC:

The best all-around video editor:

Adobe Premiere Pro CC:

This video editing software for Windows is widely considered the leading edge of video editing for home use today. It has a series of integrated workflow technology to ensure that you can edit your video into a timeline and then perform ongoing edits to each clip in the selection. 

Adobe Premiere Pro CC also gives you access to a massive amount of video formats. You can edit video captured on almost any device, upconvert it to 8k and even work on virtual reality contact. The software is compatible with almost any type of Adobe files as well.

If you already own it aftereffects, audition or stock, this is a tool that you can use to round out your arsenal. Using any type of Adobe product for editing can be a seamless experience you are moving from program to program. 

The audio editing suite in Premiere Pro is a type of digital editing suite that you would find in any studio. The essential sound panel gives you access to some of the basics like compression, reverb, balance, and EQ. With the compatibility this editing software has with audition, you can easily take your video projects and upgrade their sound to professional levels.

The publishing features on Adobe Premiere Pro also make it easier for content creators. If you are a professional blogger or a business owner that is going to be regularly publishing to platforms like Vimeo or youtube, you can choose to export your final project directly to these platforms. 

Even though these are extremely professional tools, Adobe Premiere Pro CC for windows isn’t something that’s going to leave beginners absolutely stuck. The streamlined interface that it has to offer as many drag-and-drop tools and there are extensive tutorials available online. There are professional-grade features available here as well as some of the bare minimum items you need to get started.

The program comes with a free trial offer and it is definitely something that you should give a try if you are seeking powerful features with a beginner-friendly learning curve.

The best on Mac:

Final Cut Pro X:

If you are going to be doing video editing on Macintosh computers, Final Cut Pro is the standard that you should look to. Final Cut Pro X is the most powerful postproduction product that the software developers have created to date. 

The big addition for the year 2020 is the reduction in license costs. The original Final Cut Pro came with a licensing fee of nearly $1000 but the software creators have reduced this fee down to $99 for first-time users. 

This is a complete video editing package that has a number of professional features as well as some easy tutorials that beginners can take on too. The interface is a bit different from Adobe products with a three pane view. There is a magnetic timeline, trackless and sound library. Almost all of these elements can be easily edited in the timeline and imported from the library. You can also quickly added in titles, voiceovers, effects and more.

Final Cut Pro X leaves filmmakers with a wealth of options for its base license. The program out of the box has over 149 video effects, over 100 audio effects, over 180 title animations and over 100 transitions. Implementing all of these effects and creating professional videos doesn’t take long with drag-and-drop options.

If you plan on using this editing software on a MacBook Pro with the touch bar, the touch control settings can add all whole new depth to your editing process. The Mac touch bar can be used to improve things like timeline scrubbing, text editing and more.

The 3-D templates and textures can create unique lighting effects and lead to some much more professional graphics than you might receive in other video editing platforms. You can add a variety of angles on the screen and create more powerful lighting effects than you may have seen in previous versions of Final Cut. 

The advanced features on Final Cut Pro X go in depth on projects like 360° videos, 4k videos and more. Multicam editing, the option for unlimited video tracks and chroma key support means that this is a piece of editing software that will resonate well with the professionals too.

Perhaps the most impressive part about Final Cut Pro X has been its optimization. The developers have done an amazing job ensuring that this software can run on a wide range of Mac devices. Even older MacBooks will be able to use the advanced features for editing. 

Final Cut Pro X comes as I highly recommended program especially if you are on mac and you would like editing software that’s going to be simple to use with plenty of power and advanced features.

The best open source video editor:

Blender:

Blender has expanded its capabilities in 2020 and it offers more than just a full-scale video editing suite. The product is completely open source and now offers all of the tools that you need for 3-D animations. The program allows for rendering, motion tracking, modeling and more.

With all the features you would need for video editing, the program comes with 32 slots for video clips, plenty of adjustment layers, filters, speed controls and transitions. The effects that you can add will ensure that you can produce a wide range of complex videos. 

For any amateur video editor, this is a great place to get started because it’s available for free and there’s plenty of open source effects and additions that you can add on to the program for making professional quality videos. If you are tired of downloading free trials on professional video editors only to have a watermark on all of your projects, Blender is an excellent idea as well. Blender can produce videos for commercial purposes, for education and more. 

Although Blender may not be as user-friendly as some of the minimalist menus that you would receive on Final cut or adobe, the program is open source and remains free. It is widely available on Windows, mac and linux and it has massive compatibility with the number of file types for animation and video. 

The best free video editor:

Lightworks:

Light works has long been known as one of the best free video editors with advanced features. The program available on Macintosh, Linux and Windows and it has many of the same features that you would receive on Blender, with the option to upgrade to a Pro version.

Lightworks has some impressive resume credentials as well. Even though it’s a free editor, it’s garnered some attention from editors in Hollywood for its ease of use and powerful features. Lightworks has become somewhat of an industry standard for learning professional grade editing. The program has been responsible for editing a number of films including the King’s speech, the wilful Wall Street and Pulp Fiction to name a few.

The free version of this software has everything that you would need to get started including support for multicam editing and well over 100 effects to add to your films. Multitrack editing and massive compatibility with lightworks are some of its strongest suits. 

The Pro version of Lightworks can bring about all of the features you would receive on any Hollywood effects editing software. Even though Lightworks is not a program that you would hear as an industry standard like Final Cut Pro, it still delivers some very professional results and without the need to spend money up front. 

The best for beginners:

Adobe premiere elements 2019:

Last year’s version of premiere elements has a number of sales available for the license code. If you are interested in some of the most powerful video editing tools for beginners, premiere elements has many of the effects and transitions you would see in Adobe Premiere, but with a much more friendly user interface.

Premiere elements may not have the support for 8k output, VR devices or advanced sound options but it does offer a quick setup mode for editing your media on launch. Users can start the program in quick, guided and expert mode. Having the quick mode available can give you access to some of the basics you would expect in a video editor, guided mode can provide ongoing tooltips that will help you to learn more the advanced functions. Expert mode features the full menus and suite of effects so that you can make expert quality videos.

As a guided editing interface, the program supports touch-based editing and the ability to learn every component and effect in the program. Rather than struggling through with a number of tutorials with a more advanced Adobe product, you can have a video editor that can quite literally teach you the process of editing professional videos. 

What separates Adobe Premiere elements from some of the competition is that it has a lower license code as well. It may not have all of the advanced features of some other video editors, but it is available at a fraction of the price for a license code. The free trial that’s available can also make sure that you can get a taste of the tutorials and menus that can be found in this video editor. 

As one of the best programs for beginners, this is an excellent all-around tool if you have a Windows 10 PC or Mac that you will be editing on. 

For Mobile editing:

The best free mobile editor:

Wondershare Filmora GO:

This video editor is a great option if you need to access some basic video editing functions on a tablet device or on your smart phone. The application has garnered some popularity for people that regularly post on Instagram. Influencers could film a video and then have a piece of content that’s ready to post all on their phone.

Filmora is a film editing program that has been optimized for mobile devices. The original version of this program was available on Windows and Mac and it has an easy mode for dragging and dropping video clips, adding music and then quit producing the video. Effects can be purchased in the store including intro videos, transitions and themes. 

The most surprising part about using Wondershare Filmora GO is that it’s a completely free format. The program will watermark the videos that you export, but the paid service to produce videos without the watermark is quite inexpensive as well. 

The video editing tools on Wondershare and the support that the editing program has for exporting video is incredible. For a free program, you will have access to almost every feature of this product only with the watermark on eport. 

If you are looking for a serviceable free video editor as a mobile user or beginner, this comes highly recommended. 

The best robust Mobile video editor:

Adobe Premiere Clip:

Adobe has produced a version of Premier that’s available for use on mobile devices including android and IOS. The app does have some restrictions as far as the length of clips that you can produce and some of the features that you could use as part of the editor. 

Other restrictions come with some audio editing in the platform. There is an audio sync and freeform editor available but you will have to choose music from the Adobe clip library. 

The group of tools that’s available on this device are fairly robust when it comes to video editing. You can quickly drag and drop multiple video clips and then edit them with the trimming tools. All of these clips and photos can be dragged from your photo and video albums and placed onto a timeline for trimming or editing on each individual clip as well.

The app offers a surprising number of features with manipulating the speed of video, adjusting video, performing some color correction and more. 

The process of sharing videos from Adobe Premiere clip is also quite easy. The application integrates with your social media accounts ensuring that you can publish your finished work directly to Facebook, youtube or platforms like Twitter too. If you’re an avid social media user and you plan on creating video content for your page on your mobile phone, this could be one of the most efficient tools that you could be using in 2020. 

The best cloud based solution:

WeVideo:

Cloud based video editing has grown popular since the inclusion of YouTube’s editing suite. There are some developers like WeVideo that are offering more features however. WeVideo gives users access to a full editing suite within their browser. This product is available on IOS and android and it can be accessed in any web browser on PC.

The number of features and functions that are available for this video editor can be quite surprising. The editor comes with a library of commercially licensed music, audio editing capabilities and a host of transitions and effects. 

The other big benefit of using WeVideo is that you don’t have to worry so much about hard drive space when editing your video projects. Uploading your clips into the cloud storage ensures that you can quickly work with them and then re-share your completed projects in 4k resolution. 

The only downside to this cloud-based editing software is that you are limited to 10 GB of cloud storage. This can be a perfect option if you are working on a project to project basis, but if you’re planning on editing several videos or having a library of added videos, you will need to regularly delete old content. 

WeVideo also uses a watermark on the free version of the cloud video editor. The pricing page details a number of packages that could work for you if you enjoy editing videos within this platform. The pricing is generally not too expensive especially when compared to the costs of a full editing suite.

The largest advantage of using a cloud-based system for your editing comes with the performance enhancements that you can see with this application. If you have a slower computer or an older phone, you should be able to edit videos much more efficiently using this browser-based resource. 

WeVideo can be a fantastic option if you are looking to edit a quick video and you’re away from your studio or if you just need to perform a few quick edits to some mobile content before you upload it. 

The best mobile timelapse editor:

Hyperlapse:

One of the coolest new tools for 2020 in creating mobile timelapses is the Hyperlapse tool created by Instagram. Creating time lapses on a mobile phone was previously very complicated and it included condensing video so that it could fit onto the device while also managing settings for capture with the phone camera.

Hyperlapse makes it easy to capture time lapse images on any IOS device. There are several different speeds available in the application and the set up time is minimal. You could be off and running to film a time lapsed sunset at 12x in just a few button presses. Capturing this type of footage often took professional grade tools or an advanced editing suite, with the help of this application you can add these truly professional shots to your film with ease. The program is only available with ios devices, but it has bolstered the tool kit that any videographer has in 2020. 

The best for quick compilations:

Splice:

For combining a few different clips together into a compilation, it’s unlikely that you would need a full editing suite. If you have the footage that you’d like to splice together into some quick clips, it might be better to open up a free app like splice instead. 

Splice can be a fantastic way that you can drag-and-drop a series of video clips and splice them together in a compilation with your own music. For creating quick content while you are on the go, keeping splice in your back pocket can be a lifesaver for platforms like Instagram.

Go Pro produced this program to help users quickly spliced together video clips into collages. The app can help you quickly trim and edit videos as well. If there are parts of your clips that you would like to trim out before they had an editing program, splice can be a fantastic way to save time and storage later on. 

As you drag and drop clips onto the background with splice, you can edit various pieces of the video, trim and cut lengths as well as take advantage of the massive music library in the app too. All of the sounds can be downloaded from the online cloud music library to give your clips new life. If you are a vlogger, or you just want to do save time by trimming your clips, splice is an excellent tool.

No matter what type of video editing that you’re planning on doing in the year 2020, these are some excellent tools that you can keep in your toolbox as a videographer or video editor. Choosing some of these programs could truly enhance the speed of your workflow and elevate the quality of your production. If you are hoping to get noticed this year or simply produce better quality video content, these are some tools that you should explore to push yourself and your skills.